Bauer and Division enjoying the ride

It’s been a good week for the Division Ave. girls basketball team. The Blue Dragons captured the Long Island Class A championship with a 57-51 victory over Harborfields on Friday.

Since then, things have been a little different, and not just because they still had practice on St. Patrick’s Day.

“It’s been crazy,” said senior captain Molly Bauer. “It’s like we’re celebrities. Every day teachers are coming up and congratulating us.”

The team even got complimentary Chicken Classics from the Division Ave. Deli. That’s what happens when you become the first team from the first suburb to reach the state Final Four. No Levittown basketball team, girls or girls, has ever made it this far.

“It feels amazing,” Bauer said. “We have such great chemistry… It’s just unbelievable. Your almost speechless.”

Division (20-1) will be put to the test Friday at 1:30 p.m. at Hudson Valley CC against Section I’s Lakeland. The Hornets won the state championship in 2007 and returns two players from that squad. One of those is 6-3 Vanderbilt-bound center Tori Jarosz. Division has not seen a player of her caliber this season.

The Blue Dragons have no shortage of athletes, six players also played on the county finalist soccer team, or height, five players are 5-10 or more, including Nicolette Parmese, Kristen Costello and Kristen Stuart. So they could potentially be well-suited for stopping Jarosz.

But no matter what happens, thanks to last week’s LIC, the Dragons will return to Levittown as champions.

Keep checking this blog all weekend as Adam Ronis and I live blog from the state tournament in Troy.